Sunflower League Week Five Game Recaps

Venus Triplett rushed for 221 yards and two
touchdowns on 28 carries. Photo LJWorld.

Olathe East 21, 
Olathe South 12

The Olathe East football machine is slowly but surely coming to life. The Hawks starting things off by jumping out to a 14-0 first half lead following two first quarter touchdowns. The first came on a seven-yard run from Jordan Brown and the second on a four-yard pass from Connor Leach to Braxton Love. The Hawks pushed their lead to 21-0 on a second quarter touchdown pass of three yards from Leach to Jalen Branson, before the game was postponed due to inclement weather, with completion scheduled for Saturday. Olathe South came out firing in the second round, scoring first when Jake Suerer scored on a one-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. That made things 21-6. Olathe South added one more touchdown on a three-yard pass from Seurer to Coleman Clanton, but that was all she wrote for the Falcons.

Olathe North 26, Lawrence Free State 19

Free State looked phenomenal in their week four victory against SM West, but the team was unable to bring the same type of performance to ODAC, as Olathe North was able to come away with their third win on the season. Scoring began late in the first quarter when Cole Murphy found Josh Moore on a 25-yard play action pass touchdown, to put Olathe North up 7-0. The Eagles scored again midway though the first quarter on a 14-yard touchdown run from Venus Triplett to go ahead 13-0. Just when it looked like Olathe North would add another score, Free State's Blake Winslow managed to intercept a Murphy pass off a deflection and take it 77 yards for a touchdown. But Olathe North was able to get onto the board with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Murphy to Triplett just before halftime to go up 19-7. The Eagles came out hot in the second half, scoring first on an 80-yard touchdown run from Triplett. Free State answered with consecutive touchdowns over the remainder of the half -- a 10-yard run from Joe Dineen and 15-yard pass from Dineen to Khadre Lane -- but a late drive to potentially tie the game came up short when Jamil Brown picked off a Dineen pass to close out the game.

Leavenworth 37, SM West 34

I'll break the third wall here -- Leavenworth scored a major victory on the road against SM West, possibly the program's biggest success over the past 10 to 15 years. That shouldn't be overlooked. And neither should the circumstances with the Andre Maloney tragedy that clouded the situation. Leavenworth players, coaches and fans did an excellent job of quietly taking pride in their big victory, while boisterously providing support for Maloney and the SM West community.

Leavenworth jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter on field goal and a 36-yard run from Jason Randall. But SM West answered back with a vengeance. First they capped off a drive with a 19-yard touchdown run from Rashaun Owens. On their next possession, AJ Verdini found Andre Maloney on a 63-yard catch and run for a touchdown. It was Maloney's last play. He left the game and was rushed to the Overland Park Regional in an ambulance just minutes later.

SM West score a third touchdown in a row on a six-yard run from Justin Hobbs to push the lead to 21-10. The Vikings stopped another Leavenworth drive and regained possession, but Verdini was picked off by Anthony Hunt who returned the interception for a touchdown to pull the Pioneers within four. Just before the half Verdini scored on a one-yard plunge to give SM West a 28-16 halftime lead.

The Pioneers went on to own the second half. They opened things up with a 60-yard touchdown run from Randall to pull closer, at 28-23. SM West answered with a drive a 15-yard touchdown run from Tarik Watson to push the lead to 34-23, but Leavenworth answered twice. First on a 65-yard touchdown run from Isaiah Ross to make things 34-30. Then, later in the fourth quarter, Randall broke loose on a 15-yard touchdown run to give the Pioneers the lead again at 37-34. SM West managed to drive to within the Leavenworth five-yard line with under a minute remaining, but they weren't able to put any points on the board.

SM East 27, SM South 21, OT

I'm beginning to think there's something to this "Lancer Magic." It looked like the Lancers were going to run away with things early as they jumped out to a 13-0 first half lead on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Christian Blessen to Sam Huffman and a drive that capped off with four-yard touchdown run from Luke Taylor. SM South was able to respond just before the half when Chase Allen connected with Nick Oliver on a five-yard touchdown pass. SM East came out strong in the third quarter, capping a drive with yet another four-yard touchdown run from Taylor and converting the two-point conversion to go up 21-7. To SM South's credit, they didn't give in like prior years in this rivalry. The Raiders scored two fourth quarter touchdowns. The first came on a 30-yard reverse pass from KJ Edwards to Oliver. The second on a four-yard pass from Allen to Oliver. Oliver also hauled in a crucial two-point conversion to tie the game and send it to overtime. SM East started with possession and scored when Taylor took a run in from 10 yards out. SM South fumbled the ball on a toss play on their possession, and SM East recovered to notch their fifth win in as many games.

Lawrence 16, SM Northwest 7

We haven't seen this type of Lawrence team since their dominant rushing club of 2005. The Chesty Lions opened the game with 12 straight run plays, then capped things off with a two-yard touchdown scoot from Kieren Severa. The score put LHS up 7-0, but SM Northwest answered on the ensuring kickoff when Jake Horner took the kick back 79 yards for a touchdown to tie things up. LHS added a second quarter field goal from Ellis Springe to go ahead 10-7 at the half. In the third quarter the Chesty Lions added another touchdown on a four-yard run from Severa, which proved to be the final score of the game.

Olathe Northwest 42, SM North 12

No box score was reported. With the victory, Olathe Northwest (2-3) matched their win total from 2012, through just five games. For SM North (0-5), the program's current losing streak now stands at 15 games dating back to week nine of the 2011 season. Next week Olathe Northwest travels to SM West while SM North hosts SM South.